Archive for July, 2010

Synaptics announced a range of capacitive touchscreens that will range up to 10.1 inches in size and support 10 simultaneous finger touches. Meanwhile, Digitimes predicted that demand for glass-based capacitive panels will grow steadily, at the expense of resistive touchscreens.

Infrax Systems announced a version of the HTC Desire Android smartphone designed for encrypted voice and data communications. In other HTC-related news, HTC will sell Android phones under its own name in China, HTC's “Sense” skin will move to Android 3.0, T-Mobile posted a teaser page for what may be the HTC G1 Blaze, and the carrier has discontinued HTC's original G1.

NCR announced two compact POS (point of sale) devices that run SUSE Linux for Point of Service, as well as a number of Windows operating systems. The RealPOS 40 and RealPOS 60 use Intel Atom and Celeron processors, respectively, offer enhanced energy efficiency, and provide both four powered serial ports and up to eight powered USB ports, the company says.

NetLogic Microsystems announced a multi-core “solution” using its MIPS-based XLP processor architecture, and says it will soon introduce nine new XLP SoCs. Aimed at high-end networking applications, the Linux-ready XLP8128S integrates four eight-core XLP832 SoCs clocked at up to 2GHz and offers over 160 programmable processing engines, for up to 160Gbps throughput and 240 million packets-per-second (Mpps) processing, says NetLogic.

Intel says it has developed a prototype silicon photonics link that moves data at 50Gbps, the equivalent of an entire HD movie being transmitted every second. Unlike present-day versions, silicon-based optical technologies will be affordable enough to be integrated into PCs, embedded devices, and consumer electronics, the chipmaker says.

Indian retailer Infibeam.com is readying two seven-inch tablet computers to be sold in India, one running Android 2.1, and one running Windows CE 6.0. Both known as the “Phi,” the devices have different CPUs and dimensions, but both offer 800 x 480 pixel resistive touchscreens and up to five hours of battery life, the company says.

Exacq Technologies is shipping a line of Linux-based hybrid video surveillance appliances with Intel Atom processors. The ExacqVision EL-S systems offer eight or 16 analog inputs and up to 24 IP inputs, allowing creation of systems with up to 40 channels overall, says the company.

Kmart has begun touting a seven-inch “Gentouch78” Android 2.1 tablet for $150, as well as a Linux-based seven-inch color e-reader called “TheBook eReader,” both from Augen. Meanwhile, TheStreet quotes analyst Ashok Kumar as saying Motorola will release a 10-inch tablet this November running Android 3.0.

Variscite announced a SODIMM-sized COM (computer on module) based on TI's DM37xx CPUs, with ARM Cortex-A8 cores clocked at up to 1GHz. The VAR-SOM-OM37 includes up to 256MB of RAM and 256MB of flash storage, offers a touchscreen interface supporting resolution up to 2048 x 2048 pixels, and is available with a Linux 2.6.32 or Windows CE 6.0 BSP (board support package), the company says.

A photo of a T-Mobile-destined, Android-based HTC “G1 Blaze” phone has popped up on Engadget, and Droid Life has unveiled Motorola's Droid 2, due for a Verizon launch next month. Meanwhile, Verizon's Droid X delay has been extended, some minor screen and security problems have emerged, and the phone has been rooted but not fully conquered, according to reports.

Fujitsu announced resistive multitouch screens that may be operated either via fingers or a stylus. To be offered in sizes ranging from 5.6 to 12.1 inches, the devices will target POS (point of sale), kiosk, and banking systems.

LiMo Foundation and GNOME Foundation announced a partnership to collaborate on further extending GNOME's open source tools to LiMo (Linux Mobile) compliant devices. In addition, LiMo Foundation has joined GNOME Foundation's Advisory Board, and GNOME will become an Industry Liaison Partner for LiMo, says the partners.

Via announced three “device development kits” incorporating a previously announced Em-ITX motherboard and related expansion modules. The AMOS-5110, AMOS-5210, and AMOS-5430 are complete PCs that respectively focus on digital signage, factory automation, and GPS functionality, according to the company.

Aaeon announced a 3.5-inch single board computer (SBC) with a Socket-P slot that can accept an Intel Core 2 Duo or Celeron M processor. The 5.75 x 4.0-inch GENE-9655 is further equipped with up to 2GB of DDR2 memory, Mini-PCI and Mini-PCIe expansion, as well as interfaces for gigabit Ethernet, serial, and USB 2.0, says the company.

HP has confirmed it plans to release multiple tablets, including some running Microsoft's Windows 7 and others running the Linux-based WebOS it acquired along with Palm. The announcement follows sightings on the web earlier this week of HP's “Slate 500,” a Windows tablet with an 8.9-inch touchscreen, dual cameras, and a 1.6GHz Atom processor.